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In 1487 a book was published that changed the course of history \u2013 for the worse. Heinrich Kramer, a Dominican friar and inquisitor, was left smarting after a failed attempt to prosecute witches and so turned his hand to literature. At the end of a nine-month frenzy of writing, he emerged with the Malleus Maleficarum \u2013 also known as the Hammer of Witches.<\/p>\n
Accompanied by a papal bull \u2013 a formal decree \u2013 from Pope Innocent VIII, the Malleus Maleficarum declares that witches are real, underscores the danger they pose, and outlines in detail how to prosecute a witch, emphasising the importance of torture in this process.<\/p>\n
![\"Susan](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/5bf8a174c33f923a37a0c858de8b67abbed0c4ef.jpeg\")
Susan Millard pictured with the Malleus Maleficarum.Simon Schluter<\/p>\n
The book is as notorious as it was popular \u2013 500 years after it was first published it still appears regularly in pop culture, referenced in Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Supernatural, and has been a source of inspiration for heavy metal bands. Now, a rare 1494 copy of the book published by Anton Koberger has been acquired for the University of Melbourne\u2019s archives and special collections.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis particular copy of the Malleus was a really important thing for us to purchase,\u201d says Susan Millard, curator of rare books, archives and special collections. \u201cIt fits really well with our academics and their subjects and what they\u2019re researching, so that\u2019s absolutely fantastic, but also it fits well with printing history.\u201d<\/p>\n
This copy falls into an extremely specific time window where old methods and new technology were at odds. The printing press had existed for less than 50 years, and so while the pages were mass-produced, they were augmented with handwritten details known as rubrication. As a job \u201cit died out about five, six years after this because they worked out that you could do the same job quite just as easily with coloured type\u201d, explains Jon Buckingham, acting associate director of archives and special collections.<\/p>\n
Along the bottom leaves of the book is a name or phrase, though time has made it impossible to decipher. Purchased from a UK bookseller for $160,000, this version of the Malleus belonged to two different German monasteries before being sold at auction in 1883. \u201cIt\u2019s very rare [to have] something that\u2019s passed through so few hands,\u201d says Buckingham.<\/p>\n
![\"Words](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/02eef540606bd00e4e6fb7a3ad345fe14ac41d8f.jpeg\")
Words visible on the edge of the Malleus Maleficarum. Simon Schluter<\/p>\n
Kramer\u2019s book was finished during a perfect storm of societal upheaval and technological innovation which allowed his ideas \u2013 unhinged as they were \u2013 to spread.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere were other witchcraft manuals beforehand, but they weren\u2019t printed and they weren\u2019t circulated in the same way,\u201d explains Dr Charlotte Millar, senior lecturer in the school of historical and philosophical studies in the faculty of arts. \u201cSo [Koberger\u2019s] decision to publish it also really changed how influential it was going to be.\u201d<\/p>\n
What set Kramer\u2019s book apart was that he emphasised that witchcraft resulted from a pact with the devil, and made the case \u2013 not only in the book, but also in its title \u2013 that women were more likely to become witches. Maleficarum is a word that refers specifically to female witches.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe acknowledges that men can do some of these things, but really it\u2019s about women, because of their moral weakness and moral inferiority.\u201d <\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/f4d7cb6fbd02b40d9df2aecb32c0bdbff2c71ce0.jpeg\")
A page from the newly acquired 1494 edition of the Malleus Maleficarum.Simon Schluter<\/p>\n
Even for the late 15th century, Kramer\u2019s views were extreme. \u201cKramer is actually genuinely misogynistic for his time,\u201d says Millar.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe says that witchcraft is an exceptional crime … and that means we can use exceptional methods, such as torture, to find out if people are witches.\u201d The book didn\u2019t exist purely as a philosophical exercise \u2013 it was written as a practical handbook on how to hunt and prosecute witches.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt really helps the witch hunts [to] take flight, and it really leads to really intense trials,\u201d explains Millar. \u201cBefore the 15th century, people believe in witches and magic, but they don\u2019t associate [them] with the devil, and so people aren\u2019t executed for witchcraft. The executions for witchcraft don\u2019t start until the late 15th century, and they take off in the 16th century,\u201d says Millar.<\/p>\n
It is estimated that 50,000 people, mostly women (many of them elderly or widows) were executed in the witch trials.<\/p>\n
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